LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer David Carroll had expressed concern that six furlongs might not be enough distance for Fire Slam before the $103,499 Matt Winn Stakes was run Saturday at Churchill Downs.

No worries.

Assisted partly by a speed duel that carried two front-runners through a wind-aided opening quarter of 20.68 seconds, Fire Slam, ridden by Pat Day, rallied from a few lengths off the pace to post an easy 5 1/4-length triumph in the third running of the Matt Winn. Fire Slam returned $4.20 as the favorite in a field of just four starters.

STICKNEY, Ill. - The thermometer was climbing toward 80 degrees Saturday afternoon at Hawthorne. It felt like Arlington weather.

Tuesday's nine-race program here brings down the curtain on the National Jockey Club at Hawthorne meet, with the action shifting to Arlington Park on Friday. The meet has had its moments - Ten Most Wanted in the National Jockey Club Handicap, Pollard's Vision's Illinois Derby - but goes out on the same working-class note that defines it: The closing-day feature is an entry-level allowance at six furlongs.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The primary reason Eugene and Laura Melnyk are involved in owning Thoroughbreds is because they love the racing end of the business. So when one of their runners, Harmony Lodge, won last year's Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga, they didn't rush her off to the breeding shed.

Since the Ballerina, has continued to prove she is a valuable racehorse, with victories in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom at Belmont Park last October and the Grade 3 First Lady at Gulfstream Park in January.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Apparently outclassed and utterly disrespected at 40-1, Adoration ran so slowly last fall in the Breeders' Cup Distaff that the win was considered a fluke. Her 101 Beyer Speed Figure was the lowest by a Distaff winner, and two subsequent defeats did little to enhance Adoration's reputation.

Instead, Island Fashion, who won two Grade 1 sprints and finished second in the Santa Anita Handicap against males, and Star Parade, who led gate to wire in a Grade 2 and a Grade 1, emerged as division leaders.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Silver Bird and Eye of the Sphynx should both be strongly backed in Sunday's $163,200 Fury Stakes at Woodbine.

The seven-furlong Fury, for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies, is an important prep for the June 13 Labatt Woodbine Oaks. In fact, four of the last seven Fury winners went on to capture the nine-furlong Oaks.

CALGARY, Alberta - The most anticipated matchup of the young season is set to take place in Sunday's $40,000 M.R. Jenkins Memorial at Stampede Park, when Raylene, Alberta's horse of the year last year following her upset score in the Canadian Derby, takes on archrival A Shaky Start.

The Jenkins, a six-furlong handicap, is a coming out party for Raylene and A Shaky Start, both 4-year-old fillies. They dominated their division last season, winning six races apiece and earning acclaim as two of the best 3-year-old fillies on this circuit in some years.

AUBURN, Wash. - It's only fitting that Canadians have left their mark on the Hastings Park Handicap, which is named for Emerald Downs's sister track in Vancouver. Tucumcari shipped south to win the 6 1/2-furlong stakes for fillies and mares in 1997, and Fair Apache made the same successful journey in 2000.

Locals have held sway for the past three runnings, but a trio of British Columbia invaders will try to break that string on Sunday, when the $40,000 Hastings Park Handicap will be run for the ninth time.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Dino Condilenios won his first training title in 2003 and considering the way his horses have been running at the current meet, there's a very good chance he will repeat as the leading trainer at Hastings this year.

Condilenios will saddle Kwaito in Sunday's feature race, a $25,000 claiming race for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs, and she figures to be one of many contenders in a wide-open event that drew nine horses.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Older fillies and mares take the Sunday spotlight at Churchill Downs, which only seems appropriate for Mother's Day. Hundreds of Louisville families have made a tradition of taking mom to the races on the second Sunday in May, and the feature is a $64,300 allowance race called the Mother's Day purse.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Two Dot Slew is based at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., but her heart is in Louisville. A 7-year-old daughter of Evansville Slew, she has never won outside Churchill Downs in her 44-race career.

On Thursday she scored her fourth victory at Churchill Downs, winning a 1 3/8-mile turf allowance race under jockey Rafael Bejarano. Her previous three victories had come on the Churchill Downs main track.